For those of you that are thinking about playing online poker for money, I have put together a beginners guide to help get you started on the right path. The game I'm going to refer to is the most popular form of poker in the world, whether its online or in the real world, Texas Hold em poker.
I'm not going to waste anybody's time, by explaining how to play the game, there are literally hundreds of websites that will explain the rules and how you play Texas Hold em Poker, My Beginners System to learning how to start successfully playing poker.
Have a look at a variety of Poker sites, get a feel for them and find one that you are comfortable with.
Start of by participating in play money games for about a week or so; try to play at least an hour a day or more. Bear in mind that play money games are not really representative of real money games. The point of doing this is just to get you use to playing the game.
The next stage is to start playing the freeroll tournaments, which are free to enter; the casino operator puts up the prize money. They are a great way to get use to playing in a real money environment. Freerolls are a great learning tool for new poker players. Recently poker legend Chris "Jesus" Fergusson started with zero cash and turned into $10,000, he started it off, by playing freerolls. Play these types of tournaments until you feel have developed a good feel and understanding of the game, at least have a couple of cash places in the free tournaments before you move on to the next stage.
Start playing the 1 table, 10 person sit and go tournaments, I would recommend to playing at around the $3 mark. By playing this kind of tournament it will allow you to play a lot of hands in a real cash tournament for a small amount of money. Usually the top 3 places are paid so you have a fairly good chance of wining. Every 10 tournaments you play, you should at least win one. Keep playing this type of tournaments until you start wining more than you lose on a regular basis.
Now its time to move on to cash games, I feel its best to start off by playing Pot Limit Hold em, at least this way you are never going to go broke on one hand, this type of game restricts the size of bet that you can make. Start of by playing the lowest level possible, by now you should have a good understanding of the game. Some poker players will tell you there is a huge difference between cash games and tournaments. But the Legend Chris "Jesus" Fergusson maintains you should play them the same way. I wouldn't advise playing Pot Limit for too long, just get a feel for cash poker games. Stick with this game for maybe 10-20 hours.
Next its time to move on to the ultimate test, No Limit Hold em, in this game you can quite frankly lose every penny you have in one hand. Again start off at the bottom level and move up as you start winning, never play in a game with more than 5% of your poker bank balance, e.g. you have $100, start off with $10. If you have a bad run and lose the $10 in one day. You should stop playing your luck is out for the day; we all have bad runs and need to know when to walk away.
Your objective is to build up your bank balance and move up the levels, don't rush, don't try to move up too quickly, you will invariable go bust if you do. I would advise you to play a combination of cash games and tournaments, try playing some of the bigger tournaments as your bank balance grows.
Hold em is a simple game to play but it involves a huge amount of different strategies, I would recommend playing relatively few hands, but betting and raising often when you play your hands, you should only be playing 6 -10 hands an hour.
As you get better and progress as a poker player you can start playing 2,3,4,5 different poker rooms at a time, this is where the real money is to be made.
Remember poker is more than a game of luck, even though luck does come into it at times, for the good poker players out there it is a game of focus, discipline, intelligence, psychology, maths, patience and much more. When you start out playing poker learn as much as you can, get yourself educated about percentages, what hands you should play at any given time, when you and who you can bluff, read as much information as you can online, buy books, never stop learning and trying to improve your poker playing skills. Remember fish get eaten buy sharks, if you follow my advise you should be safe.
About the Author
I'm wandering Scotsman that is currently living in Barbados, pursuing my business goal, which is to make 2 million dollars. I'm currently a director of two companies called http://awakenparadisepropertyconsultants.com and http://celebrationscaribee.com. I'm also a blogger of the iconic blog called http://2milliondollarbills.com
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